Sally Kipyego's run to history began with her first NCAA championship as a Texas Tech Red Raider in the fall of 2006. The Kenyan native transferred from South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, won the 2006 NCAA cross country championship, and hasn't slowed since. Kipyego's dominance has been nearly flawless: She's won eight of the 10 NCAA championship races in which she's competed. If the 23-year-old successfully doubles at the NCAA indoor championships in March, she will surpass University of Wisconsin great Suzy Favor Hamilton to become the most prolific women's champion in NCAA history.

Favor Hamilton ran into the history books by dominating the middle distances from 1986--1990; Kipyego's historic run has been over hill and dale and in races 3,000m on up.

Perhaps Kipyego's toughest test came last fall when she won her third consecutive NCAA cross country crown; FSU's Susan Kuijken hung tough until Kipyego broke her on a hilly section mid-race. Yet even then, Kuijken demonstrated remarkable resiliency, keeping it close and hanging on to finish just 6 seconds in arrears.

Kuijken now looms as Kipyego's kryptonite in her run for history. Though she finished 11 seconds behind Kipyego in the 1500m at last spring's NCAA outdoor meet, her performance this fall indicates she's reached another level; further, she'll race Kipyego secure in the knowledge that Hannah England, her former teammate, was one of only two women to defeat Kipyego in an NCAA championship race. (Kipyego might have had a better chance to win in the 10,000m had she run that race instead of the 1500m.)

Other than England's win in the 1500m, Wake Forest's Michelle Sikes outkicked Kipyego with a lap to go in the 5,000m race at the 2007 NCAA outdoor track championships, nixing Kipyego's attempt at becoming the first Division I runner to win five individual titles in a single school year.

Kipyego's quest is all the more intriguing in that she's likely to try to earn her way into the history books by winning the mile and the 3,000m indoors. Kipyego acquired a yen for the mile last spring; her desire to run into the history books in the mile and not the 5,000m, where she would be the prohibitive favorite, speaks to her competitive nature. And when we investigate the components to Kipyego's success, her competitive fire looms as possibly her finest attribute.

Kipyego's running career began auspiciously as a teenager in Kapsowar, Kenya, in the heart of the Rift Valley, long the breadbasket of the country's perennial crop of distance running champions. True to form, she ran often, covering 10-plus miles in her daily commute to school, and her talent shone early: She finished eighth as a 16-year-old at the 2001 World Junior Cross Country Championship, just a year after she had begun competing.

Like all too many Kenyan phenoms, her fiery rise appeared to have reached a premature zenith when a stress fracture in her left leg knocked her out of competition for the next two years. Prior to the injury, like most of her fleet-footed peers, Kipyego had dreamed of professional riches. Injured, she reassessed her situation, and thought of an alternative path. Inspired by the tragic memory of the loss of a cherished friend who died in the arms of her and her brother when he could not get medical care after a bike crash, Kipyego considered leveraging her gift for running to earn an education in health care in the U.S. so that she could one day return to Kenya and help alleviate the acute shortage of health care workers.

That journey began at South Plains College in 2005, and she began her collegiate career with a new approach. Kipyego attributed her prolonged two-year injury sabbatical in part to the pressure she had felt to make the 2002 world cross team that led her to run through a stress fracture -- she recommenced her running with an acute understanding of the need to listen to her body and not push through injury.
"Now," says Kipyego, "it's a blessing that I have been healthy; it's something that I don't take for granted. Sometimes, I could have a workout, and if I'm not feeling 100 percent, if I'm tired or worn out, I'll skip that workout even though it's really crucial and I know I need that workout, because I've realized that I'd rather miss a workout than break my body during that workout. It's about understanding and being able to compromise and think beyond that workout."

That understanding is evident in her actions. For instance, Kipyego monitors her weight closely, maintaining a range of 103 to 105 pounds on her lithe frame. If she gets below that, she worries and makes adjustments to get back to the level that she knows works best for her. And last year, after dominating the 5,000m at the NCAA indoor championships, Kipyego elected not to compete in the 3,000m because she just did not feel right, again exercising the restraint that has helped her stay injury-free three years running.

Second, Kipyego's sabbatical gave her a newfound appreciation for her gift, which manifests itself in her uncompromising work ethic and fiery competitive nature. "Sally," Murray says, "absolutely hates to lose, and she is always willing to put it on the line." He points to her loss in the 1500m at last spring's NCAAs as a case in point: Despite being a long-distance specialist (and NCAA 10,000m record-holder) she pushed the pace and ran England to the wire, garnering the Olympic A standard, a huge PR and the satisfaction that she had competed honorably.

That race exhibits the third attribute to her champion's temperament: Kipyego keeps it all in perspective. "I go out there and try to give my best; that's it. If I go to a race and give my best and don't win, I will be all right with it because I know I've gone out there and given everything I got."

After all, it's just a race. On getting her nursing degree in May, Kipyego says, "It's so huge to me. For some people it's just a degree, but for me it goes beyond that. I've learned so much about myself and the world. And [nursing] goes beyond a major to me; it's very personal." She knows her impact when she commences her nursing career could well eclipse her achievements on the track.

A Matter of Diligence

Don't let the sweet words fool you. Tech senior Chase Wade has trained with Kipyego since her days at South Plains; in his estimation, her singular talent is her racing savvy. "She knows how to break people," he says. "She understands she can take people out in 4:45 and they're gonna die. She'll die too, but not as hard as them. She's just so mentally tough."

That tenacity is coupled with a stride Wade and fellow senior training partner Zach Quinones admiringly characterize as "like a guy's" in its fluidity, power, and strikingly, its sound. Says Quinonez, "We'll be running tempos and we'll hear somebody behind us. By the sound of the stride I'll assume it's a guy. Then she pulls up and I'm like, 'OK.'" And they marvel at how her stride, like that of Oregon Olympian Andrew Wheating, varies little in appearance whether running 60-second or 80-second quarters, indicative perhaps, of her tensile strength.

Though Kipyego has cultivated her strength and speed endurance to where she now consistently runs workouts like 6-mile tempos at 5:18 per mile, and 10 x 400 in 61 to 65 seconds with 75 seconds rest, Wade has seen Kipyego improve most on her long runs. At South Plains, she couldn't hang with him on long runs, but a recent 10-miler on an unrelentingly undulating dirt road in Southland, Texas, left Wade and Quinones slack-jawed.

"A lot of people struggle their first time out there, even if they're in really good shape," Wade says. It took junior 4:18 miler Cory Higgins three years to barely break 60 -- a time, says Quinones, "that indicates you're on the right direction to getting to the next level."

Kipyego recently scorched the run in 58:49, about 2 minutes faster than what she ran early on at Tech. And that run is why Wade and Quinonez believe the tenacious but ever-humble Kipyego is poised to run under 4:20 for the mile this winter -- a time which should put Kipyego in good stead to win the event en route to becoming the winningest Division I runner of all-time. As in every aspect of her life, expect Kipyego to simply get it done.

[Ed. Note: At the recent NCAA indoor championships, Kipyego won the 5,000m title, but was just barely outkicked at the line in the Mile by Tennessee's Sarah Bowman. This was her final season of eligibility, which leaves her tied with Suzy Favor Hamilton for most NCAA titles.]

Record Run-Down

Here's a look at the NCAA titles won by former Wisconsin great Suzy Favor Hamilton and current Texas Tech standout Sally Kipyego. In addition to her wins, Favor Hamilton also racked up three runner-up NCAA finishes and won 54 of her 56 collegiate finals track races, including her final 40 races. Kipyego, meanwhile, never lost a college cross country meet in three seasons at Texas Tech and became the first woman to win three straight Division I championships. She also holds the NCAA record for the 10,000m (31:25.45) and has two other runner-up NCAA finishes on the track to her credit. In her first collegiate season at South Plains College in 2005–06, Kipyego won NJCAA titles in cross country, 1500m, 5,000m and 10,000m.